4D. Warlock Highlander

Zinyra's patron is dead and the person who killed him wants to give the opportunity to get stronger...if she kills her fellow warlocks.
The rules:

1. The fight must be one-on-one and no one else can help
2. You can sense another Brad contractor if you touch them, but they will also know who you are
3. You must win only with your own skill, you cannot use magical items other than your martial weapons and spell focus
4. To gain your opponent's power, you must kill them. You gain their power and the power of any other warlock they have killed. (mechanically, this means that you'll gain a level in warlock, specifically, for every person you kill and every person your opponent killed)

Structure

Exposition

Zinyra has a dream where she is sitting in a cozy cottage at a rough wooden table. A warm cup of tea and a plate of cookies sit in front of her and on the other side of the table sits a beautiful elven woman clad in white with long blonde hair. A DC 18 perception check will cause Zinyra to notice that the woman has a small scar over her left eye, bisecting her eyebrow. If asked who she is, she will say that Zinyra can call her the Benefactor; obviously not her real name, but she has her reasons for keeping that a secret for now.
The woman smiles sympathetically. "Hello, my child. I'm afraid I have some good news and some bad news for you. Which would you like first?" The bad news is that Zinyra's patron, Brad the Baffling, is dead. The good news is that the Benefactor has arranged it so that Zinyra won't lose any of her powers and, in fact, will have the opportunity to become even stronger. You would like to become stronger, correct? Yes, I thought that was the case. Well, all you have to do is find and kill the other contractors. 
The rules:

1. The fight must be one-on-one and no one else can help
2. You can sense another Brad contractor if you touch them, but they will also know who you are
3. You must win only with your own skill, you cannot use magical items other than your martial weapons and spell focus
4. To gain your opponent's power, you must kill them. You gain their power and the power of any other warlock they have killed. (mechanically, this means that you'll gain a level in warlock, specifically, for every person you kill and every person your opponent killed)

The Benefactor is not Zinyra's new patron; she is the one who killed Brad, but it was unavoidable. Rather, she wanted to make sure that Brad's contractors weren't affected by his death. Zinyra can call upon the Benefactor if she needs something, but she won't be able to respond as quickly as Brad and there are things she cannot do.
At the end of the conversation (whether it comes to a natural conclusion or ends early because Zinyra asks too many questions), the Benefactor will smile again, but this time you catch a glimpse of something sinister in her eyes. But you don't have an opportunity to look closer because the Benefactor says "Talk to you later, child. Good luck," and the cabin, tea, cookies, and woman all fade into whiteness and Zinyra wakes up.

Conflict

What happened here is that a young woman (Dara Anchaly) who was taken on as an apprentice warlock working in the Forge of Spells has been trapped in Phandalin far longer than she expected. She doesn't know what her family is doing or where they are and her master is cold and disdainful. She wants to leave and search for her family, but she's too scared to travel alone through the wilderness with all the dangers around. She's convinced that if she were stronger, she would be able to leave on her own. However, she's not very good at magic and hasn't impressed Brad all that much. She feels like her progress has stalled and wishes there was an easier way.
On one particularly difficult day, she left the wizard rooms and walked to the edge of town where she sat on a tree stump and cried. Her desperation drew Entropy to her. Entropy disguised herself as a stereotypical fairy and pretended to be caught in some nearby vines hanging from a tree. She called for help and Dara untangled her. Entropy introduced herself as Poppy Thistlewhite and said that since Dara had done her a service, Poppy would grant her one wish.
Dara wished to be strong enough to travel safely and find her family. Poppy said that she couldn't just give her power, but if Dara wished, Poppy could create a path for her to follow if only she's brave enough to follow it. Dara agrees and Poppy tells her to pass along information to Brad the Baffling, saying that there is a magical stone in the Dreamscape that will make him stronger and, in exchange, Brad will surely make her stronger. Poppy also directs her to tell Brad where there is a small opening in the border that he can go through and that the stone can be mined as much as he wants without going too far inside. Brad will know what you mean.
Dara does as she was asked, telling Brad about her encounter with Poppy. Brad is baffling, but not particularly bright, so he assumes that the planar mess allowed a celestial fae into the material realm, and the feywild shares a border with the Dreamscape so it makes sense that the fairy would know about the border crossing and the magic stone. Brad promises to make Dara stronger if this tip is good.
However, Brad doesn't find a magic stone in the Dreamscape, only a calico tabaxi woman with a scar over her left eye and an insane amount of power. Entropy captures Brad easily and uses his connection to the Material Plane through his contracts to widen the hole in the Dreamscape boundary. This allows her to use the original power of the Dreamscape, namely, entering people's dreams. She's still far from being able to physically enter the Material Realm, but that doesn't really matter.
When Entropy was done with this, she kills Brad and sets up the warlock highlander rules just for fun (this doesn't even really help get her closer to her goal. At best, it might make people desperate enough to make deals with her).
Dara had a similar dream to Zinyra except Poppy came to her instead of The Benefactor. Dara was appalled and utterly terrified. She is even more sure that she can never leave Phandalin.

Rising Action

If Zinyra asks almost anyone for advice on how to know if there is someone who has Brad the Baffling as a patron in the vicinity, they will direct her to the magic users in the Forge of Spells. There are no warlocks in Rockport, but there might be some in Phandalin. All sorts of magic users came to the Forge of Spells to study it.
The party will go to talk to the receptionist at the Forge of Spells, who will go fetch the magic manager, Gio. Gio is annoyed to have to deal with such a minor request, but won't tell the party what he knows unless they give him a good reason for why they want to know (and convince him it's true). If Gio isn't convinced, but the party doesn't leave, he'll send someone to Dara's room to see if she knows them. Dara will be terrified and tell the person not to let the party in. That will be that.
They might want to talk to Dara's master, Blaise Ventry. Blaise will complain to them about how Dara's progress has stalled and she's so distracted and can't focus. He doesn't care about her, he cares about how her performance reflects on him.

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Forge of Spells Description

The Forge of Spells is now a much more commercial enterprise than when the party last saw it. There is a whole storefront built around the mouth of the cave entrance. It has a small reception area with chair and brochures advertising their custom magic item business. On the walls are pictures of the items they've made in the past and testimonials from former customers. A receptionist will greet them and ask if they have an appointment.
If they go inside, they find that the formerly rough tunnels that the party traversed ages ago are now smooth marble hallways and there are a lot more rooms. Some of the rooms are workshops, and deeper in towards the actual magical geyser are research labs where magic users appear to be doing magical experiments.
The compound ends in a number of dorm-like rooms. Dara's room is in a section where the apprentices are placed. They are two to a room with bunkbeds. Further in are individual rooms for the other magic users.

Resolution

• You went to visit Dara Anchaly and had to get her room number from Gio, the Magic User Manager ("MUM"). He gave it to you right away and then you antagonized him a little by continuing to hover around while he tried to deal with all of the other complaints that were piling up. 
• Ulo tried to steal his stapler and failed, but then left him with a 2 for 1 pie card that he really appreciated. He said he would come by for some pie later.
• Dara was suspicious of you all, but then let you in and told you how she was tricked into getting Brad the Baffling killed:
• She saw a fairy trapped in a bush and freed it and the fairy granted her a wish. She noticed in the hindsight that fairy didn't seem to be physically present. 
• Dara wished that she was strong enough to travel to her small town home and the fairy told her that she could get Brad to give her more power if she told him where to get a special material on the Dreamscape that would make him stronger. The fairy told her of a space on the Feywild where he could cross over into the Dreamscape and find the material right away.
• The next thing Dara knew, the fairy was in her dreams telling her that Brad was dead and she was in Warlock Highlander. The fairy also gave her a weird dagger in her dream and, when she woke up, the dagger was next to her in bed. She only touched it briefly before throwing it under the bed; it was too creepy to look at.
• She is very worried about getting killed, but Zinyra said that if anyone went after her, Dara could come ask for help.
• The party took the dagger, which has a black hilt and a wavy, red blade.
• Back at home, Ulo touched the dagger and heard Brad the Baffling's voice demanding vengeance. His soul was trapped in the dagger. 
• He said that the person who killed him must have been a resident of the Dreamscape/Locked Plane and probably wanted to exploit his connection with his patrons to get further influence outside of the plane.
• He didn't see who it was, but it must have been someone strong to kill him, the amazing Brad the Baffling.
• He can tell the party where in the Feywild he went to cross over into the Dreamscape.

Parent Plot

4. Enemies Everywhere

Related Locations

• Forge of Spells
• Phandalin